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Scores of parents who are owed more than $160,000 in taxpayer-covered expenses find themselves unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy of a Calgary private school. Officials with Alberta Education say hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants were paid to Green Learning Academy in late August based on verbal assurances that those funds would be used to reimburse families.

A Calgary private school is considering unspecified options in the wake of the province’s move this week to revoke the facility’s accreditation and funding. In a prepared statement from legal counsel, officials at the International School of Excellence say they were “shocked and saddened” to learn of Education Minister Jeff Johnson’s decision to shut the northeast facility, after a third-party audit by KPMG detailed financial irregularities and ineffective board oversight.

If this week’s Heartbleed scare has left you daunted at the task of cleaning up your sloppy online security, you’re not alone. The security management company LastPass estimates the average Internet user has 25 passwords. And many people break all the security rules and use the same password for more than one website. And you start counting the number of sites you sign into - from your bank, to Facebook, to that online store where you bought a Christmas present three years ago - you could find you have 50 to 100 online accounts and some people have many more.

By now, even the most minimally web savvy among us is aware of the online security threat posed by the Heartbleed software flaw, but changing email and social media passwords aren’t enough to keep your information safe, experts warn. Big sites such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo and the Canada Revenue Agency have been fast to identify and fix the flaw in their networks, however, smaller, locally based sites may now pose the greatest risk of exposing personal information, said Tom Keenan, professor of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary.

The failure of the Alterrus rooftop greenhouse has left investors and creditors holding the bag for about $4 million and the city’s parking corporation EasyPark out of pocket for at least $13,104 in unpaid rent. EasyPark’s liability could rise if the company is forced to remove the high-tech enclosure and mechanized vertical growing systems left on a downtown parking garage by the bankruptcy of Alterrus and its operating partner and marketing arm Local Garden Vancouver.

At a time when many Calgarians needed help more than ever, they gave more than ever. The United Way of Calgary announced Wednesday that its 2013 campaign raised a record $55.7 million for local agencies and programs focused on fighting poverty, helping young people and community building.

For 10 years, a partnership between authorities in Alberta and the U.S. has worked to make it harder for fraudsters on both sides of the border to evade the law. Members of the Alberta Partnership Against Cross Border Fraud gathered in Calgary on Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the initiative.

The organizers of this year’s United Way fundraising campaign looked donor fatigue straight in the eye — and didn’t blink. Launching this year’s campaign mere weeks after floods devastated large parts of southern Alberta, the United Way of Calgary is aiming to surpass last year’s record-breaking $55.2 million in contributions.

An Airdrie businessman finally began to serve his five-year prison sentence on Wednesday after the province’s highest court unanimously dismissed his appeal for defrauding 49,000 foreign tourists of $3.6 million in GST refunds.

Alberta may have to cough up an estimated $17.4 million that federal authorities say was improperly paid to it by a trust that claimed residency in the province to avoid higher taxes elsewhere in the country. Auditors with the Canada Revenue Agency are battling in court with the trustee for a prominent and prosperous Newfoundland family over its attempt to enjoy the so-called Alberta Advantage without actually moving.

Alberta government coffers are short an estimated $120 million after the province lost a six-year battle against nearly a dozen corporations it argued were illegally avoiding paying tax. Two of the firms — Canada Safeway Ltd. and Husky Energy Inc. — convinced the courts their sophisticated plans were a legitimate means of minimizing their corporate levy.

April 30 is always known as the deadline to file your taxes, a process that many dread for different reasons, but the advent and sophistication of tax software today makes it much easier to file them yourself.

The Canada Revenue Agency says the Rick Hansen Foundation improperly issued a $1.8-million tax receipt to Rick Hansen for donating rights to his name to the foundation, The Vancouver Sun has learned. In an Oct. 12 letter to the foundation, CRA’s charities directorate says it has “concluded that (Hansen’s donation) does not meet the definition of a gift.”

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